but we lie and we pretend
by inklaced
Summary: don't look at me, somebody's waiting for you.../ it can never be. candice x volkner x flint, with minor references to Jasmine.


If I owned Pokemon, would I still be writing fanfiction? There's a disclaimer for you. Also, the second bracketed quote is off Teardrops On My Guitar by Taylor Swift, although the fic isn't actually related to the song. Apart from those stated, I own everything else!

 **"But We Lie And We Pretend, and no one ever has to know"**

(I can't love you like you love me...)

She stares at him from across the room, stares at him because he's the only clear silhouette she can make out through the thick haze of dancing bodies and flashing spotlights. The music seems to bend and twist, curling around her, hurting her ears.

And she knows she's totally drunk, not because of the way her vision and hearing seems to be playing tricks on her, but because she's wishing and hoping for him to come over to her. As a general rule of thumb, Candice does not number herself among the day-dreamy girls who like to wish and hope, but do nothing about it.

So she goes over instead.

As she dodges the sweaty figures of her fellow partying gym leaders, she wonders if he's noticed her staring. She hopes not, because it's embarrassing, even though she can't stop herself. It's because she's drunk, she tells herself, but her mind traitorously reminds her that she's lying. Anyway, if he had noticed, he would have walked over to greet her too, wouldn't he? She knows he would have, because if he didn't, that would mean that he really was in love with that Olivine girl.

Candice is used to getting what she wants, and she can't bear not having it.

Why isn't she good enough? She knows quite well she's not terribly ugly, in fact, she can even be considered above average. But it seems as if he prefers the lithe, nubile type- which she is not. She has tried, honestly, she has. But you can't pretend to be what you aren't; a mere topaz will never pass for a diamond, no matter how much polishing it goes through.

She looks into his electric-blue eyes, and knows that the love she finds there is not for her.

Nevertheless, she is not about to give up. She's just stubborn like that, no matter whether that loved-yet-hated attribute will bring her more trouble and heartache than it's worth.

Her footsteps echo as she ducks and twists, but she's more concerned with plastering the false smile securely on her face.

(I fake a smile so he won't see...)

He knows that someone is staring at him; he sees it from his peripheral, feels it burning into him from across the room. Funny, then, that the gaze belongs to the freezing ice-type gym leader of Snowpoint.

He's not as oblivious as he seems to be. Besides, it's very, very obvious what she's angling for.

It's also very, very obvious that he's not at all interested. But maybe that's just him, he thinks kindly, ignoring the fact that many people have already pointed out his infatuation to the Olivine gym leader, Jasmine. It's also probably just him hoping that his crush isn't that easy to figure out, because he thinks it'll never happen, and so he doesn't want said crush to find out.

So when she walks over and plops herself next to him with faraway eyes and a glazed smile, he greets her perfunctorily, as he is expected to, and nothing more. She is but a League acquaintance; they are not friends. He is not obliged to speak to her.

Although he knows someone who would want to. He can't believe that no one has found out a certain Elite Four member's secret yet. It is sad, because that person would be so much better for her than he could ever hope to be. And he does not like seeing his best and closest friend with such anguish in his eyes, knowing that in some way or another he has put it there. But Fate works in its mysterious ways, and he cannot interfere.

Her eyes are icy and cold as snow, laced with misplaced admiration. He can't help but think that that particular shade of hazel would look so much better with someone else's fiery, stone-coloured ones than his own pale, watery cobalt hues. He wishes she will realise that sooner.

For now, he will pretend to be blind to the poor girl's affections and just hope that someday, she will turn her heart to the one who was surely her best match...

(Don't look at me, somebody's waiting for you...)

He casts his eyes towards her, a wishing look etched upon his face. She doesn't notice, though; she's too busy passing on the gaze towards a man with platinum blonde hair. Coincidentally, that very man is his best friend.

It can never be.

She's completely smitten with someone else. And, to add salt to the wound, the Sunyshore gym leader is completely enamoured with the delicate creature from Olivine. He can't even have the small comfort of seeing her happy, albeit with another man.

He can't even be jealous of the yellow-haired man, because there isn't reason to be. It isn't his fault that she fell for the brilliant, electrifying genius instead of him. Come to think of it, that was the smarter thing to do. Volkner's a thousand times better than he can ever hope to be.

But it still selfishly pains him as she walks towards the other man. _He never even notices you,_ he screams to her mentally. _He never gives you the time of day! Like I want to. Like I will if you let me... You won't let me._

She will never see anything in him. His eyes are granite, lifeless cement, ordinary. Her's are russet, and although it sounds like just a normal brown tone, nothing's ever just normal when it comes to her. It's funny, really, how an ice-type gym leader came into the possession of such warm eyes, but not so funny that she'll never so much as glance at him with them.

There is a reason why fire overpowers ice and melts it to bits. He would rather not have her, he knows, if having her will extinguish the light from her eyes and the sparkle from her soul. It would break him to witness that. And even though he knows that it will also break him to watch her devote herself to one who'll never return her affections, at least he can imagine that there is still a chance.

And if he can't have the real thing, he'll just dream. Someday, maybe someday, she'll finally be his. Maybe someday she'll finally see that there's someone else, that there are other options out there. Maybe someday he will stop being invisible to her...

Until then, he'll wait patiently, pining from a distance for a girl that might never be his.

(It's hard to lose something that was never yours to begin with...)

 **"But until then, We'll Lie And We'll Pretend, and no one ever has to know"**


End file.
